ELIOT KAMENITZ / THE TIMES PICAYUNESgt. Joey Troxler hugs his wife, Katie, after returning home from Iraq, as other Marines follow behind Sunday. Cheers, tears, hugs and signs greeted the Belle Chasse-based Reservists after their eight-month combat tour.

Eleven months after they left the Naval Air Station in Belle Chasse for a combat tour in Iraq, about 100 Marine Corps reservists returned home this morning, bringing an end to the unit's second trip to that desert country since the March 2003 invasion.

All 850 infantrymen in the 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines who deployed for the eight-month tour in Anbar Province returned home safely, their commanding officer, Lt. Col. David Bellon, said after arriving at the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base.

"It's a tremendous relief to have everybody come home," said Bellon, a San Diego resident who completed his third Iraq tour.

Some of the Marines were injured by a roadside bomb during the deployment, said Bellon, who provided no details of the incident.

"No one was seriously wounded," Bellon said. "That's just a miracle."

Their flight landed about 45 minutes earlier than the expected 11:30 a.m., arrival. Families and friends awaited their arrival on a parking apron.

The battalion, whose headquarters and service company is at the air station, has companies based in Baton Rouge, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee. Marines in those companies have already returned home, Bellon said.

Overall, the headquarters and service company has about 250 members. But about 150 of them opted for alternate transportation homes from Camp Lejeune, N.C., where the battalion arrived from Iraq last week for demobilization.

The battalion reported for active duty in May 2007 to begin intensive combat training before shipping out to Iraq. There, they worked to help stabilize a region of Anbar Province while training Iraqi police forces. The Marines did see some combat in Iraq, Bellon has said.

It was the battalion's third Iraq deployment, having participated in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and again in 2003, months after the U.S.-led invasion began.

On Saturday, about 20 members of the Marine Air Group 42 Military Police Detachment returned to the air station from a tour in Iraq. Those Marines help guard military detention facilities in Anbar Province.